Bhubaneswar, Nov. 27: To save walls of the Odisha State Museum from ugly posters, the authorities have set up an iron fence around it.

The construction of the fence that started a year ago following a campaign by The Telegraph in November 2012 has finally been completed.

On May 4 last year, the municipal commissioner announced at a monthly council meeting that it would write to political parties and different outfits who were defacing the public walls with their advertisements. The decision was taken after The Telegraph first published a report titled ‘Beauty under sea of graffiti’ on November 5, 2012, showing how the Rs 40-crore Rajmahal flyover was covered with graffiti and posters of political parties and cultural and business organisations soon after it was opened to public on October 17, 2012.

Blaming lack of public awareness on the issue, the then municipal commissioner on May 3, 2013, said that violators would be fined if they continued to deface public walls. However, the civic body is yet to initiate a drive to punish the culprits.

Culture director Sushil Kumar Das said: “The Odisha State Museum is a treasure trove that houses priceless objects collected from different regions of the state over a period of last six decades. While the museum is well maintained, the wall outside is smeared with ugly posters. Therefore, we decided to put up this iron fence to save the boundary wall.’’

He also said that other institutions in the city could also do the same to save their walls.

“This is a commendable step. However, authorities should look into the matter and punish those who irresponsibly deface city walls,” said Sanjay Jena, a businessman from Nageswar Tangi.

Inspired by the The Telegraph campaign against the defacing of the public walls, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), too, engaged an agency to clean graffiti and posters that had defaced the city walls in May last year. Sri Jagannath Expressway Private Limited, the agency hired by the highways authority, removed posters and graffiti from the walls of the Jayadev Vihar flyover. Guidelines of the NHAI do not allow any poster or graffiti on their structures. However, the beautiful wall paintings commissioned by Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation on the Jayadev Vihar flyover to promote culture and tourism was defaced by posters of various organisations.